ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite Version 8.8

This release note provides information on the latest posting of AMD's industry leading software suite, Catalyst™. This particular software suite updates both the AMD Display Driver, and the Catalyst™ Control Center. This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The AMD Catalyst™ software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.

The Catalyst™ software driver and the Catalyst™ Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for maximum stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same Catalyst™ release

Caution:

The Catalyst™ Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 2.0 installed, the Catalyst™ Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.

AMD Product Support

The Catalyst™ Vista driver for both the 32bit and 64bit versions of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system is supported on the following ATI Radeon™ products.

AMD Desktop Product Family Support for both Windows Vista and XP

AMD Desktop Product Family Support

ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series

ATI Radeon™ X1300 series

ATI Radeon™ HD 3800 series

ATI Radeon™ X1050 series

ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series

ATI Radeon™ X850 series

ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 series

ATI Radeon™ X800 series

ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 series

ATI Radeon™ X700 series

ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series

ATI Radeon™ X600 series

ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series

ATI Radeon™ X550 series

ATI Radeon™ X1950 series

ATI Radeon™ X300 series

ATI Radeon™ X1900 series

ATI Radeon™ 9800 series

ATI Radeon™ X1800 series

ATI Radeon™ 9700 series

ATI Radeon™ X1650 series

ATI Radeon™ 9600 series

ATI Radeon™ X1600 series

ATI Radeon™ 9550 series

ATI Radeon™ X1550 series

ATI Radeon™ 9500 series

AMD Multimedia Family Product Support for both Windows Vista and XP

AMD Multimedia Family Product Support

ATI All-in-Wonder™ X1900 Series

ATI Theater 600™

ATI All-in-Wonder™ X1800 Series

ATI All-in-Wonder™ X600 Series

ATI All-in-Wonder™ 2006 Edition

ATI Theater™ 550 PRO

ATI All-in-Wonder™ X800 Series

ATI All-in-Wonder™ 9800 Series

ATI Theater 650™

ATI All-in-Wonder™ 9600 Series

Note:

ATI All-in-Wonder™ boards operate with AMD's Windows Vista ready display and capture drivers under the Windows Vista operating system. However, the Windows Vista Media Center application does not support TV/Capture functionality provided by the ATI All-in-Wonder™. TV/Capture functionality is qualified to function with Snaptream's BeyondTV 4.6 for Windows Vista. Other third party solutions (such as Arcsoft's Total Media 3) may support TV/Capture with the ATI All-in-Wonder™, but these applications have not been fully tested by AMD.

AMD Chipset Product Support

AMD Chipset Product Support

ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Series

AMD 580X Series Chipset

ATI Radeon™ HD 3100 Series

ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1150 Series

ATI Radeon™ HD 2100 Series

ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1100 Series

ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1250 Series

ATI Radeon™ Xpress 200 Series

ATI Radeon™ X1250 Series

AMD 690 Series Chipset

ATI Radeon™ X1200 Series

Operating systems supported

The latest version of the Catalyst™ software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:

Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit versions)

Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Home Edition

Windows XP Media Center Edition

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Note:

When installing the Catalyst™ Vista driver for Windows Vista, the user must logged on as an Administrator or have Administrator rights in order to successfully complete the installation of the Catalyst™ Vista driver.

Catalyst™ Control Center: New Avivo video features

Dynamic Gamma/Contrast correction, available on the ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series, improves video image quality by delivering more vivid color in content with sharp contrasts and scenes with low and bright images.

Improved video presets, available for the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 and ATI Radeon™ 4800 Series, delivers a newly optimized video presets that users can select depending on what kind of video content they are viewing.

Windows XP support: Edge enhancement, which adjusts the level of sharpness of video content and Noise Reduction, which removes ghosting artifacts while preserving details of the original video. The new slider controls can be found in the All Settings page of the Avivo Video tab found in the Catalyst™ Control Center

Hybrid Graphics Support for Windows XP

This release of Catalyst™ introduces Hybrid Graphics support. Hybrid Graphics delivers a significant 3D performance boost for systems featuring an AMD 780G/780D integrated graphics motherboard and an ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 Series or ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 Series graphics accelerator. It also provides support for up to four independent displays

ATI's Folding@Home

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project designed by the Stanford University. The application performs intensive simulations of protein folding. This simulation will help researchers uncover how certain diseases develop. Folding@Home uses distributed computing to simulate protein folding, the workload is broken up into small work units and distributed across hundreds of thousands of computers over the internet. You can help find the cure to many different diseases! To join Folding@Home, follow these steps:

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating
System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows Vista. These include:

Setting the language option to
Greek no longer results in cropped text being noticed in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Component Video page

Adobe After Effects: Exiting the application no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) operating system intermittently failing to respond

Call of Duty 4: Corruption is no longer noticed when having Quad CrossFire™ enable and an HDMI 1080p display device connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35112

Devil May Cry 4: Anti-Aliasing no longer fails to function when playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled

Dirt: Playing the German Crossover track (Rally World Event) no longer results in the grand stands and chain link fences not being display correctly when CrossFire™ is enabled and MSAA is disabled

Hellgate London: Setting the display resolution to 2560x1600 no longer results in the game failing to respond

Linage II: Switching between the game and the Windows desktop no longer results in the desktop appearing brighter than its original setting. Exiting the game and restarting the operating system may also result in the desktop brightness failing to be restored to its original setting. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35108

Lost Planet (DX9): Enabling CrossFire™, AA to 4x, AF to 8x, and having all of the in-game options set to high no longer results in the game failing to respond when running the performance test

Mahjongg Artifacts: Flickering is no longer noticed when playing the game on pre-configured name brand systems

Mass Effect: Playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled no longer results in corruption being noticed on the AA menu

NASCAR demo: Setting all the in-game options to the highest levels no longer results in corruption being noticed on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series of product and running Windows Vista

Quake 4: Corruption is no longer noticed when starting a new game on systems running either Windows XP or Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product

Second Life: Playing the game on a CrossFire™ configured system (ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 and above) no longer results in corruption and slow performance being noticed

Unreal Tournament 3: The game no longer intermittently fails to launch when a map has texture detail set to maximum. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31189

World In Conflict: Setting the video quality to high no longer results in corruption being noticed

Installing a newer version of the Catalyst™ Control Center without removing the older version no longer results in a windows error message appearing when attempting to launch the Catalyst™ Control Center

The Reduce DVI frequency on high-resolution displays is no longer missing in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Digital Panel (DVI) page when hot un-plugging and then hot-plugging a display device using the HDMI port on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 3100/3200 series of product

The Display Management options are no longer missing or corrupted when switching between profiles in the Catalyst™ Control Center

Clicking Start->All Program->Catalyst™ Control Center->Restart runtime twice no longer results in the two ATI Restart icons appearing on the Windows taskbar

Setting the DPI to 120 or 144 no longer results in cropped text being noticed throughout various pages of the Catalyst™ Control Center

Making changes to the default values in the Avivo color page and closing the Catalyst™ Control Center without applying the changes no longer results in the default values failing to be restored

Cropped text is no longer noticed in the VPU Recover message when the DPI is set to 144

Checking the Use application settings in Avivo Video->Basic Color no longer results in the preview failing to be updated with the default color settings

Corruption is no longer noticed when entering the Catalyst™ Control Center->Basic Quality page on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 product

Setting the language option to German and the Catalyst™ Control Center skin to ATI_Crimson no longer results in text appearing cropped within the Catalyst™ Control Center

Catalyst™ Control Center: Enabling the option for Always on Top no longer results in dialog boxes failing to appear on top of the Catalyst™ Control Center

Running through a custom install of the graphics driver and installing the driver to a directory of choice no longer results in a C++ error message when right clicking on the Windows desktop

The pulldown menu options found within various pages of the Catalyst™ Control Center are no longer mis-aligned

Setting the language option to Russian no longer results in cropped text being noticed within the Catalyst™ Control Center

Using the Catalyst™ Control Center Setup Assistant no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center Advanced View text is appearing greyed out

A restricted number of HDTV custom modes no longer occurs after deleting all of the custom modes that were previously added

Catalyst™ Control Center: The online help links for Color->Full Screen3D are no longer missing

Catalyst™ Control Center->Help->CrossFire™: The help file no longer states that CrossFire™ is enabled by default under the Windows XP operating system

Incorrect help hardware configurations are no longer described for CrossFire™ in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Help contents

Setting the language option to any of the supported languages now results in the translated language web pages being displayed (if in existence) when clicking on the Welcome link

Corruption is no longer noticed in the lower portion of the HDMI display when using certain display modes

Disabling the graphics driver while clone mode is enable no longer results in corruption being noticed on the display devices

Connecting an HDMI display device and entering an S3 state no longer results in the operating system failing to respond or VPU Recover to activate

Connecting an HDMI display device to the DVI port using an HDMI to DVI dongle no longer results in the display mode of 720x480 failing to be in the display mode list after hot-unplugging the HDMI display device and hot-plugging a DVI display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35105

An error message indicating that the display driver stopped responding and has recovered is no longer displayed when playing a DVD title using the Windows Media Player on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ 3100/3200 series of product

Connecting a dual link display device to a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 36x0 series of product no longer results in the display device failing to display an image when enabling the option to reduce DVI and setting the display resolution to 1280x1024 60Hz 32bpp

Connecting an HDMI display device and setting the display resolution to 1600x1024 or higher with a refresh rate higher than 60Hz. no longer result in the display device failing to display an image

Logging off one user and logging on as another no longer results in CrossFire™ failing to be enabled or disabled when logging back on as the original user

A CCCPrev.exe has stopped working error message no longer appears when selecting any 3D settings in the Catalyst™ Control Center when extended desktop mode is enabled

Connecting a CRT as the primary and a DFP as a secondary display device followed by enabling extended desktop mode no longer results in clone mode becoming active when hot-unplugging the DFT and the hot-plugging it back on

Connecting a TV as a secondary display device and attempting to enabled extended desktop mode no longer results in the TV format failing to change

Connecting a secondary display device and enabling it as the primary display no longer results in the resolution being set to it maximum display resolution when enabling CrossFire™

Clicking on the seek slider when playing a DVD title using the PowerDVD player no longer results in corruption being noticed on the playback window

Switching from h.264 to MPEG2 video titles no longer results in the operating system intermittently failing to respond

Playing VC1 video clips no longer results in green corruption being noticed in the player window

Seeking or fast-forwarding in a media player application no longer results in corruption being noticed on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series of product and running Windows Vista (32 bit version)

Enabling BOB de-interlacing no longer results in a green line being noticed on the bottom of the playback window when playing a 1080i clip

Playing a standard definition DVD using the Windows Media Player no longer results in the player window flashing when closed captioning is enabled

Playing a DVD title using the PowerDVD player no longer results in the PowerDVD player failing to respond when DXVA is disabled, closed captioning is enabled and the user is fast forwarding the DVD title anywhere from 4x to 32x

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows XP. These include:

3 Kingdom OL: Playing the Asian game with CrossFire™ enabled on a system running Windows XP no longer results in texture corruption being noticed during the fight preparation menu

Assassin's Creed: Setting all in-game options to 3 and the display resolution to 1024x768 no longer results in flashing being noticed around the character

City of Heroes: Character stretching and double character reflection is no longer noticed when the in-game resolution is set to 2560x1600. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35757

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts: Enabling CrossFire™ no longer results in the displays flashing corruption when setting the in game graphics options to off or their lowest settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35118

Enemy Territory Quake Wars: Intermittent corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product

Fear Perseus Mandate Demo: Launching the game on a system running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product no longer results in the system failing to respond

Just Cause: Setting the in-game display resolution to 1280x1024 and all of the other game options to their maximum levels no longer results in corruption being noticed in the lower portion of the display

Lost Planet: Task switching between the game and the Windows XP desktop no longer results in texture corruption being noticed when switching back to the game. This issue was known to occur on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 36x0 series of product

Witcher: Enabling AA and setting the in-game options to their maximum levels no longer results in background colors being missing and the game play back being choppy. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35898

Witcher: Game corruption is no longer noticed when setting all of the in-game options to their maximum values and having CrossFire™ enabled along with AA set to 16x and AF set to 8x

Witcher: Enabling CrossFire™ on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product no longer results in game failing to respond

Using the WinDVD player (versions 14.x, 11.10x, or 9.xx) to play VC1 video content no longer results in corruption being noticed when hardware acceleration is enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35293

Installing the HDMI audio driver and the VIA audio chipset driver no longer results in a compatibility issue being noticed and a yellow exclamation mark showing up in the Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35119

Connecting a display device to the display port no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Advanced View detecting the display device as a Digital Panel (DVI)

Hot-plugging an HDMI display device to a system that has a CRT connected to it no longer results in the CRT becoming disabled after the system reboots

Choppy DVD playback is no longer noticed when enabling the option cinema enhancement and closed captioning within the WinDVD player

Corruption is no longer noticed in the lower third of the WinDVD player window when cinema enhancement is enabled

Hot-plugging a display device while the system is in standby state no longer results in the display device failing to be detected

Hot-plugging a display device no longer results in the display device failing to display an image

ATI icon corruption is no longer noticed on systems running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product

Resuming from a standby state and right clicking on the Windows desktop no longer results in menu items appearing corrupt when moving the mouse pointer over the drop down menu

Playing a Blu-ray DVD title using the WinDVD player no longer results in only audio being heard

Playing a DVD title and selecting the option to use basic color setting to default in the Catalyst™ Control Center now results in the option being applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35803

A green tint is no longer noticed around the closed captioning when playing a standard definition DVD using the Cyberlink player

Known Issues Under the Windows Vista Operating
System

This section provides information on known issues that may be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system with the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

Call of Duty 4 or Crysis: Color corruption may be noticed when running the games in full screen mode with Quad CrossFire™ enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35115

Company of Heroes: Setting the in-game options to maximum levels may result in the game exiting to the desktop after the game has completed loading. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32600

Crysis: Playing the game at a display resolution lower than the native display resolution of a connected 30" display device may result in corruption being noticed when CrossFire™ is enabled and having the Catalyst™ Control Center scaling the image to full screen. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35111

Hellgate London: Pressing Alt-Tab to return to the Windows Vista (32 bit version) desktop while playing the game may intermittently result in a translucent image of the game appearing on the Windows desktop. This issue may be experienced on systems containing either an ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 or ATI Radeon™ 4800 product

Lost Planet (DX10 version): Some of the in-game display resolutions may fail to be available when using a CRT display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35872

Quake 4: Corruption may intermittently be noticed during the new game introduction

The secondary HDMI Display may turn off when resuming from an S1 hibernation with an HDMI display connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31146

Setting the desktop resolution to 1600x1200 or greater may result in green pixel corruption being noticed when playing certain games. This issue maybe noticed when using a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or HD 2400 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31150

Attempting to play the HD-DVD title Harsh Times, School for Scoundrels using the Cyberlink player may result in block corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31155

An error message may appear when installing the display driver package through setup.exe. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31577

Installing an ATI Radeon™ X1600 series of product into a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product with the display driver already installed may result in the operating system entering a continuous reboot. This issue may be averted by removing the ATI graphics driver prior to the installation of the ATI Radeon™ X1600 series of product. This issue may also be experienced with the ATI Radeon™ X1300 and 1550 series of products. Further information may be found in topic number 737-33471

Enabling clone mode followed by switching to extended desktop mode may result in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34125

Performing an express install of the Catalyst™ Control Center may result in an error message being displayed when rebooting the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29532

Enabling extended desktop mode and setting the color depth below 16bpp may result in the secondary display device failing to redraw properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35114

A green or black screen may be displayed when configuring MCE to ATSC mode. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27622

Enabling BOB de-interlacing may result in a green line being noticed on the bottom of the playback window when playing a 1080i clip. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35895

Playing a Blu-ray DVD title may result in corruption being noticed when using certain display resolutions such as 1360x768, 1360x1024, or 1600x1200. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35896

Enabling clone mode followed by switching to extended desktop mode may result in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35766

Restoring the factory defaults for the Catalyst™ Control Center may result in the Catalyst™ Control Center title bar intermittently failing to be redrawn when dragging the interface around the Windows Vista (64 bit version) desktop

Video playback may occasionally appear shaky or jerky when playing a recorded video file using a Webcam to record and Quickplay to playback the file

Playing a Blu-ray DVD title may result in corruption being intermittently noticed when using certain display resolutions such as 1360x768, 1360x1024, or 1600x1200

Enabling extended desktop mode and setting the color depth below 16bpp may occasionally result in the secondary display device failing to redraw properly

Playing certain Blu-Ray DVD titles using the Cyberlink player may intermittently result in color corruption being noticed. This issue may be experienced under the Windows Vista (32 bit version) operating system when using an ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 product

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Operating
System

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: Flickering may intermittently be noticed when changing chapters

Stranglehold: Setting the in-game options to 1024x768, and Decals off may occasionally result in the game failing to respond after a short period of game play

Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30587

Connecting a Dual Link Panel to the on-board DVI port, followed by hot plugging a DVI display to the add-on DVI card may result in clone mode becoming disabled when rebooting the machine and the secondary display device remaining blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31166

Setting the display resolution to 1440x900 or lower may result in corruption being noticed when playing a DVD title. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31168

The display may be come corrupted with 4 bit color depth after hot unplugging the rotated primary HDMI/DFP display. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35116

Connecting a Dual Link Panel to the on-board DVI port, followed by hot plugging a DVI display to the add-on DVI card may result clone mode becoming disabled when rebooting the machine and the secondary display device remaining blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35117

Catalyst™ Control Center: Configuring a system with multi-adapters may result in an error message being displayed when running the Test Custom Clocks 737-29953

Enabling pull down detection in the Catalyst™ Control Center may result in flickering being noticed when playing a video clip using the Cyberlink PowerDVD player. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35121

Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35122

Setting the display mode to 1080p50 and rebooting the system may intermittently result in the display mode failing to be retained

Avivo Video color settings may occasionally fail to be applied in the video when played using PowerDVD

Enabling pull down detection in the Catalyst™ Control Center may intermittently result in flickering being noticed when playing a video clip using the Cyberlink PowerDVD player. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35121

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Professional x64
Edition

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system in the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

Running an OpenGL application and attempting to rotate the desktop may result in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29556

Momentary screen flicker may intermittently be noticed when launching or exiting a D3D or OpenGL application. This issue may be experienced on systems running the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 product

For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit ATI Customer Care.

Installing the Catalyst™ Vista Software Driver

AMD Customer Care

The AMD Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and ease of navigation. The AMD Customer Care website provides accurate and up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Technical issues are categorized and personalized to enhance user experience. The AMD Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com

To view a known issue or find troubleshooting information, do the following:

Go to ati.amd.com. The AMD home page is displayed.

Click on Support & Drivers. The AMD Support and Drivers web page is displayed.

In the left hand pane, select Graphics Support.

In the top right corner of the Graphics Support page, enter the topic number or a general description of the issue you are experiencing within the search field.